The Garden of Words
by Miss Lyrica
Summary: Len Kagamine has a bad habit his sister persuades him to stop. During rainy mornings, he would head out to the local park and wait for the rain to stop, instead of heading straight to school. When he meets a woman sitting on his usual seat one particular rainy day, he realizes that maybe he does need to change. "Just for a day." -Inspired by Makoto Shinkai's The Garden of Words-
1. Chapter 1

**The Garden of Words**

**Chapter 1**

It wasn't that he hated school. In fact he has warmed up to the institution that he and his sister were required to go. It wasn't that he hated his classmates, either. He thinks he has made true friends during the time has stayed there. It wasn't that he hated his teachers, or his classes, or the lessons that were being taught to him.

The reason was…nothing.

Len Kagamine absentmindedly stared traced the rim of his mug as he stared at the downpour outside the window, listening at the sounds the rain makes when it hits a surface. The steam form his hot chocolate has fogged up the window, and he never resists the idea of drawing on it whenever it happens.

He just likes skipping school until the rain stops.

Scratch that, he was waiting for the rain to stop, and skipping school was merely an after effect of his habit.

He watched as the once dry pavement six stories below get drenched by the rain, startling the commuters down there as they felt the first few drops of water on their head. He was amazed by the plethora of colors appearing as the rain gets heavier and heavier, the people opening their umbrellas for the incoming downpour. Most of them were the dreaded, boring black, some were in different shades of green, others were in the brightest glow of yellow, some instances of red and blue, the occasional transparent ones, and a dash of rainbow that he guessed bellowed to young children attending school.

How the rain makes a normally gloomy day colorful by the means of umbrellas.

The door of his sister's room opened, revealing Rin Kagamine in her school uniform, with the addition of a yellow hoodie over her blouse, and her hair still slopping wet from her hot bath. She stared at him for a moment, then proceeded to head over to the small dining table to make herself a light breakfast.

He was already in his school uniform, seated by his usual spot by the windowsill, cradling his usual mug of hot chocolate. She spied a plate of half-eaten toast on the table, as well as the half-opened jar of peanut butter beside it.

"Skipping again, Len?" she asked as she opened their fridge and grabbed the bar of butter. With a gentle nudge with her elbow, the refrigerator door slammed with a light thud. Even that did not falter Len from his window.

Rin grabbed a butter knife and began to butter a piece of bread. She usually prefers to spread the butter evenly on one side, but glancing at the wall clock above their front door she realized there are only a few minutes left before Miku and her brother picks them up.

More precisely, picks her up, since Len doesn't always goes to school on time.

Settling for a small amount of butter, she popped the bread on the toaster and began to make herself a mug of hot chocolate as well.

"Meiko-sensei's been asking a lot of questions lately," she casually said while fishing for the correct container from the pantry. "She's worried since your class participation's dropping lower. 'Lower than usual,' she says."

Len snorted, his eyes still focused on the window. Rin could see a smirk forming on his lips.

"Kiyoteru-sensei is also wondering why it's me who's always handing your assignments recently. He's also began to suspect that I'm the one doing your homework, but I don't always grant your requests, right?"

Rin almost dropped the thermos of hot water on the floor as she pressed her left hand against her chest. She had accidentally poured hot water on her fingers, which was supposed to go in her mug. She had apparently misaimed, for she was too busy watching Len for any reactions.

He noticed his sister wince in pain, clutching her left hand, and chuckled to himself.

"Hmm, no questions raised by Kaito-sensei?" he asked. He took a sip from his mug as he watched Rin stir her own drink as she walked towards the table. He wanted to laugh out loud when he noticed her drink spill on her hands, and Rin biting her lip and trying to throw the mug away.

"Eh…? Ah! No, nothing," answered Rin, still flustered over her sudden clumsiness this morning. Must have something to do with her horrible dream last night. "He's not asking any questions. Well, not yet, to say the least. Why did you ask?"

Her twin brother smirked. "Because whatever Meiko-sensei does, he does as well. Haven't you noticed that?" Len thought about his and Rin's ditzy homeroom teacher, Meiko-sensei, and her less ditzy but ditzy as well boyfriend, Science teacher Kaito. At least, that's what the students think about them, since they're not that well in hiding their relationship in front of their students.

"Oh…" Rin absentmindedly said, "Never thought of that."

Hearing the familiar ding of the toaster, she immediately grabbed the hot toast from it and took a small bite from it, forgetting the fact that it was still piping hot and fresh out of the toaster.

He really wanted to laugh louder as he continued to watch Rin freak out as she felt her tongue react to the sudden heat. And add downing her still warm chocolate drink to push the bread down her throat to her list of blunders this morning.

"I bet you never thought that I would be the one who noticed those things. Me who most of the time is not present during the first two periods."

Rin slammed her hands on the table, not realizing that her toast, which she placed on top of her mug before she flailed around cursing because of her double-burnt tongue, had fallen into the mouth of her mug of hot chocolate.

"Oh, shut up Len," she said, her blue eyes staring at her brother who kept a large smirk on his face.

Reaching for her toast, she had realized her mistake too late and groaned. "Just for a day?" she asked, reaching for a tissue on the dispenser on the table. "Just for a day, come to school early. It's hard to make up dumber cover-ups for you and your stupid habit."

Len rolled his eyes and returned to gaze down the window. When he spotted the familiar green car drive up the to the front of their apartment building, he told his sister, "Better hurry up, Miku's here."

With a click of her tongue, Rin grabbed her sloppy toast with the tissue and drank her chocolate again (her tongue was less responsive to the heat, for some reason). Using her free hand, she grabbed her bag and slung it on her shoulder, grabbed her keys from the nail hanging on the wall and gave her brother a parting glance before leaving their apartment.

"Just for a day, okay?" she said, and slammed the door behind her.

Len merely batted an eyelash as he continued to slowly drink his chocolate, feeling the warm steam on his face.

* * *

**A.N.: Advanced Merry Christmas! XDDD**

**Finally done with my very long writing hiatus. Well, not really a very long writing hiatus, just merely a break from writing fanfictions in order to prepare for NaNoWriMo since my entry was orginal fiction. And well, I won! Yay!**

**So I finally had the time to publish this thing. I watched _The Garden of Words_ a long time ago, and immediately wrote this story afterwards. It's such an amazing movie, as expected by _Makoto Shinkai_, which is, btw, the creator of _5 Centimeters per Second_, another great movie. So please, if you haven't watched his films, please do. They're awesome. :D**

**And yes, this will be LenxLuka, since I am such a hardcore shipper of the two of them. This will also be my first multi-chaptered fic in this site, as well as my first Vocaloid fanfic.**

**This was supposed to be posted tomorrow on Christmas day (at least here in the Philippines), but we're going out as a family somewhere so I chose to post it today, on Christmas Eve. I also won't be promising to update this soon, because of the same reason and because I will be joining my school's CAT training on Friday. But I will update this soon. How soon, I'm not yet sure.**

**So again, Merry Christmas!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Happy New Year!**

**Here it is, chapter 2 of this story! Sorry for the wait, since our internet connection is pretty much unstable last week (or last year). And plus, I was busy with training so I was not able to edit and check up on this chapter, which was already made before. And, umm, about the length, I'm trying to lessen it, but it somehow became longer than the first chapter. But hey, the original 2nd chapter was around 2K words, so 1.2K words is a bit lesser than that.**

**So, without further ado, here's Chapter Two!**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Thank you so much for bringing my umbrella, Miku," said Rin as she placed her brown Oxfords in her shoe locker. ''I couldn't thank you enough! I mean, really!"

In addition of Rin's sudden clumsiness this morning, she had also become forgetful. It was not until she saw Miku outside their apartment building holding an orange umbrella on her free hand that she had remembered that she had left her umbrella at Miku's house yesterday. Thank God for giving her a kind and caring friend. Not to mention the fact that Rin had also forgotten her packed lunch, which was left inside their refrigerator.

She just hopes that Len would bring her her food, since she doesn't have enough money to buy herself food from the cafeteria, and it would be really bad if she leeches food from her friends (she only does it twice a month, and she has already used them up).

If Len ever comes, that is.

Miku just smiled at her friend and told her not to mention it. "After all, that's what friends are for, right?" she said, tightening the bands that support her twin tails.

It was when Miku smiled at her that Rin mentally thanked herself for snagging such a pretty, helpful, and kind friend.

* * *

With his favorite yellow umbrella in hand and his seldom used messenger bag slung lazily on his shoulder, Len briskly walked down the crowded streets. He was in an unusually good mood today, still smirking at the sight of his usually level-headed sister suddenly become so clumsy, not to mention forgetful as well. He had thought about leaving her packed lunch in the fridge, but the little voice in the back of his head screamed not to, so he brought it with him.

It was just a few weeks in from his freshman year of high school when he first developed his habit. He and Rin had just moved in to their new apartment, and Rin, who had already memorized the route to school, had gone out earlier than he did. It was raining that day, and he was running late for school. Worse, the umbrella that he took was broken and was full of small holes. As Len walked blindly, desperate to find some shade, he took notice of the large park that he remembered was close to school. Shaking off his thoughts of heading straight to school, he entered the park and found a pretty gazebo somewhere in the middle of the park. It was there that he spent the day waiting for the rain to stop, and there he had developed his favorite guilty pleasure.

Len did not haste himself as he entered the beautiful park. He had already been there for God knows how many times already and had took note of its beauty lots of times before. The grass isn't too long or too short, the bushes are clipped regularly, the fallen leaves are often found piled neatly on the foot of some large tree (or scattered if some naughty child decided to play on it, but someone would pile them up again later on), and the gardens! Oh, the beautiful gardens!

The blonde boy would sometimes wonder how so much greenery would blend in quite naturally to the urban sprawl that surrounds it, and yet at the same time would look so out-of-place compared to the towering skyscrapers and cars that rush by. But one thing's for certain; there's a charm in the place that attracts the boy to spend much of his time lazing around one of the gardens of the park.

During his many visits to the park, Len had explored every nook and cranny of the place. He had seen the outer gardens, the one with the playground where the children would often play, The Zen gardens, where the spiritual ones would spend their time in, and the inner gardens, where all those lovey-dovey couples would retreat and do…whatever couples do.

Out of all the gardens in the park, Len always comes back to his very first one, the one he had come across on the fateful day. He had first thought that it was in the middle of the park, but further inquiries and exploration shows that it is located somewhere at the edge, and a part of the inner gardens. Unlike the other gazebos, it was not often visited for it is conveniently hidden among the dense trees. Very conveniently for the boy, and thus he had nicknamed it _"his"_ gazebo, _"his"_ property. He had even thought about carving his initials on one of the posts, but it further inspection of the gazebo shows that it was free from any graffiti whatsoever. So he threw away the thought and decided to just preserve its beauty as long as he can.

The rain had reduced itself to a light drizzle when he neared _"his"_ gazebo, but he did not close his umbrella. No, he would close it when he enters the gazebo itself, the way he usually does, may it be a heavy or light rainshower.

The boy had already planned the way he would spend his hours in the park. He would finish that Math homework that Hiyama-sensei had said to be "as easy as 1-2-3" but was as hard as memorizing the first 30 digits of pi. But not after finishing that song that's already a month overdue.

As he walked—no, he had basically _skipped_—his way to _"his"_ gazebo, he felt something…strange. He cannot pinpoint exactly what was wrong, but he just felt something. Like…like a disturbance to the force.

(Or was it just Len still thinking about the Star Wars marathon he and Piko had last Friday?)

When he took a left turn from the path and found himself in front of the gazebo, he stopped dead in his tracks.

In front of him, seated on _"his"_ favorite spot, on _"his"_ favorite bench, in _"his"_ gazebo, in _"his"_ garden, was a strange, beautiful woman, her legs crossed and holding a can of beer on her right hand. A white handbag is placed beside her, and a pink umbrella lie by her feet. She was staring absentmindedly at the ceiling, as if she was looking for holes on the roof.

He continued to stare at her for some time until she lowered her head and met his eyes. They were blue, but a different shade of blue than his eyes. Her long eyelashes fluttered a few times, and her pink, dainty lips parted lightly when she saw him, as if searching for some words to speak. But instead she closed them, her words lost and long gone.

"May…may I sit here?" Len said, finally breaking the awkward silence between the two.

He watched the woman as she blinked a few times and continued to stare blankly at him until she put her legs down and gave him a small nod.

Len cautiously walked towards the gazebo, closed his umbrella and sat across the woman, who lowered her head as he walked past her. He sat stiffly, tenser than usual, and kept his hand on his bag which was placed on top of his lap. His eyes wandered off to the outside of the gazebo, watching the leaves of the plants slightly bend as the small raindrops hit its surface.

Little did he know that the woman was watching him and his boring pastime.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"What time is it?"

Len snapped back at reality and found the woman staring at him with her large cerulean eyes. Her lips formed a small smile, and a few stray strands from her messy bun fell on the sides of her face. Her voice was rather deep and mature, but had a hint of youth somewhere between the lines. He noted how beautiful this woman is, and the contrast between her blue eyes and pink hair just makes her seem rather childlike despite her mature looks. He blushed slightly and shoved those thoughts of his away (for the time being).

The blonde boy checked his trusty leather wristwatch. Not so trusty nowadays, since the strap constantly threatens to snap anytime.

"8:23 in the morning," he replied, forgetting to address her properly, given the apparent age gap between him and the woman.

The woman nodded and leaned back into the bench. Taking one sip from her beer can, she commented, "Doesn't look like 8 in the morning at all, given all those clouds covering the sun." She then crossed her legs again and started to sip once more from her drink.

Len relaxed his posture and allowed himself and slouch. His eyes threatened to stare at the woman's deliciously long legs, but instead stared at the wet marble floor.

"Well, it's officially the storm season, so…" Len's voice trailed off when he noticed the woman's eyes on him. He felt his face become warmer and avoided her gaze. He straightened his posture again, contrast to the laxed one she has. Through the corner of his eye he spotted her lips threaten to curl into a small smile.

Not that he was looking at her, anyway.

"I guess so," she muttered.

The pink haired woman continued to watch as the boy across her shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and then lapse into a state of comfort once he had found the correct posture. Occasionally sipping from her beer, she listened to the rain falling outside the gazebo.

She had always loved the rain ever since she was a child, and wished she could dance and play underneath the showers like she did when she was younger. But from an adult's point of view, it would be a stupid thing to do, given her age.

The woman studied his features intently. She thought of him to be a somewhat nice-looking lad. His features are still on the boundary of childlike to more mannish looking, but given her approximate age of him (around 15, 16-ish) he would still be on the brink of adulthood. His hair was the nicest shade of golden she had ever seen, although too long for her liking (thank God he ties it up in that little ponytail). His eyes were blue, just like hers, but she prefers his eyes over hers (maybe because she's tired of the same old blue she sees everyday?). From what she saw earlier he isn't that much of a tall fellow, maybe around an inch or two shorter than her.

But either way, from a teenage girl's standpoint, he's cute. From an adult woman's standpoint, he's fine.

She visibly shuddered at the thoughts she's having. Both thoughts are disturbing her to an extent.

When Len saw her shake her head and rub her arms, he misinterpreted it as her shivering from the cold air.

"Do you feel cold, or anything?" he asked. He looked quite concerned for the woman despite not knowing her beforehand.

Hearing his concerns, the woman laughed and shook her head. "Oh no," she said, "I'm not cold. My blazer's a bit thick, and the beer keeps me warm anyway." The strange woman held her can up in the air before downing a great mouthful. "But hey, don't drink yet. You're still a minor. I think…" she added.

Len smirked. "My dad used to let me drink a few sips of wine when I was younger. Please don't report me," he said, raising his hands in a guilty way. She giggled once more, using her free hand to cover her mouth. To be honest, he likes hearing this woman laugh. Makes her sound younger, too.

"Well, well, your dad consented, so it's fine."

The two fell silent for a while, with him resuming to stare at the rain outside them, and her finishing her drink in silence. Her eyes trailed off again and landed on his uniform. For some strange reason.

"Waiting for school to suspend?" she offhandedly asked.

"Hmm?"

"The rain. It was heavier this morning, right? Too bad the government officials were still stuck in dreamland when it started."

"Ah."

The boy's lips tugged into a smile. "Well, it's impossible for school to suspend now. It has already started, and the rain looks like it'll stop anytime soon," Len said. "But what about you?"

"Yes, what about me?"

"Waiting for work to suspend?"

"Oh haha. The office life is not that easy as it sounds, you know. You students take it easier than us, with your class suspensions, and school breaks, and week-ends and such."

"You sound like you're a lot older than me. How old are you anyway?"

A sudden gust of wind blew across the park, and the woman's cool blue eyes suddenly turned icy because of his remark.

"Rule number one," she said, her voice dangerously low, "never ask a woman her age. That's insulting, you know?"

Len rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and sheepishly apologized to her. Hearing his apology she shrugged and smiled again. It suddenly felt a little warmer as a small ray of sunlight peeked through the thick layer of clouds, signaling the near end of this morning's rain.

"That's alright. I'm sorry as well, for thinking that teenagers are taking their free-times for granted," and then with a pause, added, "As someone once like you (and still is), I should know."

"You really do speak as if you're really old," Len murmured, and hoped she didn't hear a thing he said.

Luckily, she didn't.

Before the woman could open her mouth to say something, a loud beeping sound came from inside her bag. The sound startled the two of them, leading to the woman almost jumping from her seat. Then, realizing the sound coming from inside her bag, she opened it up and started fishing through its contents for the beep's source. Len found it amusing to find the woman removing things like an MP3 player, a make-up kit, her wallet, and a pocketbook from her bag, indicating that her bag's contents may not be as organized as he thought it was. Finally finding her cellphone, she immediately answered the call.

"Hello?…Hey there…Already?...Oh, alright then…I promise, alright?...Mmm…Ok, see ya…good bye."

Pretending he didn't hear anything, Len asked, "Anything wrong?"

"Yes, and no. It seems like my boss wants me at work today," she answered, "but my friend is back from his leave right now, so maybe work will be a bit bearable for today." With a sigh, she started to pack up her things, and by packing up it means lazily throwing back the objects inside her bag.

Len did not offer to help her out; he's not a good organizer himself. And besides, she's a stranger, and by stranger he means a strange woman.

After fixing up her things, she grabbed her umbrella from the ground and made way down the gazebo's marble steps.

"See you soon then," she said, with a smile on her lips.

Len nodded and watched her walk slowly in front of him. He was a bit surprised to see her suddenly stop and turn back at him. When his eyes met hers, a larger smile appeared on her face (and a deeper blush on his), and she opened up her bag again and pulled out the pocketbook from before.

_"A faint clap of thunder  
Clouded skies  
Perhaps rain comes  
If so, will you stay here with me?"_

She left Len with a final smile and two questions running in his mind:

_What did her riddle mean?_ and

_Who is this woman?_

* * *

**A/N: They just keep getting longer and longer :\*sigh***

**Yay, new chapter! I forgot to tell you this in the past update, but I have decided to update this once a week, every Wednesday. I actually had to post this earlier because school starts tomorrow *weeps* and this Wednesday will be quite hectic, since I think it will be our Sports fest try-outs or meeting or whatever.**

**So, who is this mystery woman? *nudgenudge winkwink***


End file.
